A Silver Rose
by my aesthetic is peanut butter
Summary: While replaying memories of the times they spent together in her head, Tetra pays a visit to Link a year after he passed away.


**I suggest listening to this w/ "Zelda: Skyward Sword Music - Fi's Farewell" playing in the background. It really fits the mood I'm looking for.**

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><p><em>"Oi, Tetra! Over here!"<em>

_I swiveled on my toes at the sound, giggling like the little girl I was. Link was running at me at full speed, and I could only shriek and run and hope the ecstasy I was experiencing didn't get the best of me._

_I laughed so hard tears grew at the corners of my eyes as he collided with me. I tripped in the sand face-first, and he sprang up effortlessly and appeared at my side._

_"Happy Birthday!" he greeted. I was a bit annoyed at his immature entrance (not many people particularly like getting mouthfuls of sand), but gave him a full grin anyways._

_"Now I'm 10 like you!" I said happily. Link returned the smile instantly. "Let's go in, my gramma made cupcakes!" he said, running towards his house._

_"Wait up, Link!"_

_._

The bittersweet memories of him still linger. I had thought about him day and night, dream or real, in company or alone…

But ever since that day, I feel like

.

_"Hey! What are you doing?" I stammered._

_I just wanted to get out of that dark dusty alley and go see Link. But this_ stupid _Windfall boy had cornered me. ME! A fearless pirate, now a pathetic loser._

_"Shh, Tetra," the boy whispered, getting closer. "You don't need that wierd freak when you have me."_

_I froze, and he laughed softly. "He's just a coward. Forget him."_

_The boy leaned in and started to kiss me; my first kiss, taken by some stupid kid! I roughly pushed him away. "Get away from me," I growled, and I ran out of the alley._

_I saw a blonde figure with a sword strapped to his back running away from where we had been. Oh, goddesses. "Wait, Link!" I called after him._

_He stopped, and looked at me with empty eyes. Then he ran off again._

_._

I don't remember if I ever actually apologized to Link.

.

_We slowed. He had brought us to the forest in Outset Island, in a part of the wood I had never gone near before._

_Link turned to me. His face, bathed in moonlight, showed uncertainty and fear._

_"Tetra," he breathed. "Ever since I met you, four years ago…"_

_._

I shuffle through the freshly fallen snow of that same forest. It is midnight of a new moon. A single rose is positioned between my numb fingertips. A red rose painted silver.

.

_"…after all we've been through: fighting Ganondorf, destroying Old Hyrule, and rescuing my sister, I have come to think of you as an amazing person, one I've grown to love." I gazed into his green eyes, seeing his nervousness clearly. He understood my patient silence, and tried to continue._

_"And, well, I…"_

_Link was silent for a moment. I was about to ask him what he wanted to say, but he just buried his head in his hands, sat on a tree stump, and took deep, shaky breaths, not looking up. My gruff, impatient pirate side got the better of my perfect, patient Princess Zelda side._

_"Link, just spit it ou—"_

_He ripped his hands away from his face and stood quickly. I didn't have even a second to examine his tear streaked face before he took my face in his hands and his lips met mine._

_._

I'm unsure of what compelled me to paint over the rose. No, I do: with all this grief clouding my mind I still consciously realize that I'm dead. Still walking, but gone on the inside.

I still pinch the rose stem. The snow worsens.

.

_Link pulled away. "Tetra, I love you," he said firmly. "I don't care if you don't feel the same... well, I do, but it's up to you to decide that, not me. When I saw that boy kiss you in that alley, I was heartbroken, to put it lightly." Another tear ran down his cheek, but his voice remained unwavering. "I saw how disgusted you looked, but it just made me realize I care about you and who you're with. Tetra, I love you."_

_Link took my hands in his, and gazed at me with a look that said_ Do you love me too?._ When he saw still only surprise on me, a frightfully saddening look took its place, and he turned away, mumbling an apology and something about going back._

_I didn't answer, but turned him to face me and kiss him back. He seemed startled, but quickly got comfortable with my lips against his._

_._

The headstones are difficult to read, so I try brushing snow off them, bowing my head in respect as I step over each grave. My footprints will fill up soon.

.

_"I hate you! How could you do this to me?"  
><em>  
><em>The words flew out of my mouth faster than I knew it. I felt dreadful and horrible and so many other things for saying that to him.<em>

_Only darkness shone in his eyes. I knew he had not meant to do what he had done, but I knew I couldn't take my words back._

_._

I notice a smaller, more modest headstone. I brush off the snow. This is the headstone I had been looking for.

.

_"What's this?" he asked. We were in our forest in Outset._

_"It's a promise ring," I responded, slipping it on his right ring finger. "Do you forgive me for what I've done? You know, the fight, and me yelling at you?"_

_Link ran a hand through his blonde hair sheepishly. "Well, actually…" he pulls out his own little box and opens it revealing a ring with a stone as blue as his eyes. I give a gasp._

_"It's a promise ring," he repeated me with a half-smile, and slid it onto my finger. "Do you forgive me for what _I've_ done?"_

_I answer him by letting my lips touch his. The bliss seems to last forever. When we do break apart, I stand on my toes to whisper _I Love You_ into his ear._

_._

I sweep the snow away from where he lies, and set the silver rose at the headstone. Of course I could've chosen any color for that rose, one that reflected my emotions a bit more accurately, like maybe black. I guess I chose silver, because it was his favorite color.

.

_"Two years already? It seemed so short."_

_"Longer than one would think" was his reply. I smiled and leaned into him. He held me close._

_"If a couple knew everything about each other, would you consider us a couple?" I asked. He nodded. "Then I guess we're a couple."_

_"We couldn't be, then!" I said. "I don't even know your favorite color. Is it green?"_

_"Silver," he automatically answered. "I'm completely sick of green, after wearing it for so long when I was a kid. I was so excited to change out of it. But silver... I always thought it was a lucky color. The color of a sword blade, the hair color of a man lucky enough to live long enough to see it, the color of rupees worth 200. And," he grinned, "the color of that ring on your finger." I glanced at my old promise ring, then at his. "Yours too."_

_._

Of course my memories aren't all happy. What made you think that?

.

_"I think we should stop for the night, it's too foggy," I said._

"_You're overreacting," Link argued back._

_It was late at night, the anniversary of Ganondorf's defeat, which was being celebrated across the Great Sea. We were sailing from Outset, and the ocean was foggier than we'd ever seen._

_"I still think we should stop." I slump into a seat with my arms folded._

_"Well, excuse me for caring about your safety, princess." A smirk flashes across his face, but vanishes quickly._

_There was more silence._

_"I still love you, y'know?" he said. I nodded._

_"I love you too."_

_._

I remember none of it. When I took a look at my ship a few days after, it was unrecognizable.

.

_"Where's Link?"_

_A tear slid down Aryll's cheek as my crew explained what had happened. Link's grandma looked terribly sad._

_I was too numb to cry._

_._

I stand up from the grave. A piece of silver suddenly flakes off the flower, and the cherry red petal is exposed.

I know Link would tell me to get up, and push his... to push his death off my shoulder. Then _he'd_ push my shoulder playfully and laugh. He would be able to get over me, unlike myself. Maybe he would. I never got to ask him.

But yet, nothing could conceal the emptiness—not sorrow, just emptiness—in me. It's like a hole in your heart.

He saved me to prevent a hole in his heart. But he knew the consequences, which were far more painful than the living. He saved me from death, where he almost escaped.

Almost.

But I guess that doesn't make it any better.

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><p><strong>Wow, was that depressing to write. Hope you enjoyed this angsty little thing they call fanfiction.<strong>

**Picture belongs to blueskies21 on Deviantart.**

**Review!**

**thespiritmaiden**


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